By Cheval John
Photo Courtesy of Dream Designs
Everyone is celebrating national small business week.
It is in honor of all of the small businesses which plays a huge part in the United States economy.
According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2014 report, they were 28,443,856 small businesses currently in operation in the U.S.
The majority of the small businesses are non-employers (22,735,915).
Though these non-employer businesses would like to have employees, they probably enjoy being solopreneurs.
Another thing that you can factor in with these solopreneurs is the fact that their non-employer businesses could be side businesses because they are taking the small steps towards full-time entrepreneurship while they are at their current full time work.
One of the best things that small businesses have over the larger corporations is the flexibility to pivot when the market changes.
They do not have to worry too much about letting go of their workers if the economy is in a recession.
Though this is great news, you might still have the “I do not have enough money blues” to compete with the larger corporations.
That is not the mindset to have because you can still compete against the larger businesses even if you do not have the “large budget.”
Despite having “limited” resources, you have the ability to be very creative on how you market your product or services with the biggest game changer of all: SOCIAL MEDIA.
Social media is a place where anyone can interact with a person even if they are thousands of miles away.
With platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc., you can be very creative in how your share your message.
My suspicion is that you are like many of the small businesses who understand that must engage with your audience on a daily basis to earn their trust and eventually a new customer.
You also realize that gaining the trust of the customer is a long term goal and that it will take time to earn their loyalty.
If a corporation want to get their message out in the world, they buy advertisements, sponsor television events like college football, basketball, etc. to get in front of the large audience that are tuning in to watch the events.
That is why the smartest companies, intuition says the majority of small businesses, are participating in group chats on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn to build their audience.
They are also blogging to showcase their expertise.
Like Stephanie Shirley, owner of Bennis Public Relations Inc.
She shares about the ups-and-downs of running a business through her company’s blog
Mrs. Shirley was very creative in building a loyal following of nearly 1,000 fans because she has been very transparent with her readers.
Because of her transparency, she has taken her business to the next level.
Another way that small businesses can market their product or services is through a podcast.
You might be thinking “Why not just a blog?”
Though blogging is very, very important, the blogosphere is over populated.
According to statista.com, there were 173 million blogs in the world in October of 2011.
That number has really increased tremendously since that report came out.
It is also possible that they are more blogs out there that are not currently active at the moment.
So the number of blogs could possibly be close to 400 million.
However, they are about 300,000 podcasts.
And with the amount of people who uses smartphones which is over a billion, that is a huge opportunity for small business owners to reach a global audience.
And iTunes reported in 2013 that they had over 1 billion subscriptions of podcast from their website.
Another thing to consider about podcasting is that Apple created the Carplay system in 2014 that allows anyone to connect their iPhone to their car’s dashboard.
The Carplay system is set to be in 50% of cars hopefully by the end of this year.
So with less competition and huge access to potential listeners, small businesses can start a podcast and build a loyal audience in addition to having a blog.
They also do not have to worry about being their true selves when they are sharing their message out to the world unlike the corporations.
So if you are a small business and are looking to take your business to the next level, consider starting a podcast and also a blog because it will allow you to grow your audience the right way and you will not have to worry too much about using a marketing budget to share your message.
That is something that larger companies will probably not be able to do because they will have to get approved from a hierarchy of executives before they can share their message.
Related
The Flexibility Of Being A Small Business
By Cheval John
Photo Courtesy of Dream Designs
Everyone is celebrating national small business week.
It is in honor of all of the small businesses which plays a huge part in the United States economy.
According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2014 report, they were 28,443,856 small businesses currently in operation in the U.S.
The majority of the small businesses are non-employers (22,735,915).
Though these non-employer businesses would like to have employees, they probably enjoy being solopreneurs.
Another thing that you can factor in with these solopreneurs is the fact that their non-employer businesses could be side businesses because they are taking the small steps towards full-time entrepreneurship while they are at their current full time work.
One of the best things that small businesses have over the larger corporations is the flexibility to pivot when the market changes.
They do not have to worry too much about letting go of their workers if the economy is in a recession.
Though this is great news, you might still have the “I do not have enough money blues” to compete with the larger corporations.
That is not the mindset to have because you can still compete against the larger businesses even if you do not have the “large budget.”
Despite having “limited” resources, you have the ability to be very creative on how you market your product or services with the biggest game changer of all: SOCIAL MEDIA.
Social media is a place where anyone can interact with a person even if they are thousands of miles away.
With platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc., you can be very creative in how your share your message.
My suspicion is that you are like many of the small businesses who understand that must engage with your audience on a daily basis to earn their trust and eventually a new customer.
You also realize that gaining the trust of the customer is a long term goal and that it will take time to earn their loyalty.
If a corporation want to get their message out in the world, they buy advertisements, sponsor television events like college football, basketball, etc. to get in front of the large audience that are tuning in to watch the events.
That is why the smartest companies, intuition says the majority of small businesses, are participating in group chats on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn to build their audience.
They are also blogging to showcase their expertise.
Like Stephanie Shirley, owner of Bennis Public Relations Inc.
She shares about the ups-and-downs of running a business through her company’s blog
Mrs. Shirley was very creative in building a loyal following of nearly 1,000 fans because she has been very transparent with her readers.
Because of her transparency, she has taken her business to the next level.
Another way that small businesses can market their product or services is through a podcast.
You might be thinking “Why not just a blog?”
Though blogging is very, very important, the blogosphere is over populated.
According to statista.com, there were 173 million blogs in the world in October of 2011.
That number has really increased tremendously since that report came out.
It is also possible that they are more blogs out there that are not currently active at the moment.
So the number of blogs could possibly be close to 400 million.
However, they are about 300,000 podcasts.
And with the amount of people who uses smartphones which is over a billion, that is a huge opportunity for small business owners to reach a global audience.
And iTunes reported in 2013 that they had over 1 billion subscriptions of podcast from their website.
Another thing to consider about podcasting is that Apple created the Carplay system in 2014 that allows anyone to connect their iPhone to their car’s dashboard.
The Carplay system is set to be in 50% of cars hopefully by the end of this year.
So with less competition and huge access to potential listeners, small businesses can start a podcast and build a loyal audience in addition to having a blog.
They also do not have to worry about being their true selves when they are sharing their message out to the world unlike the corporations.
So if you are a small business and are looking to take your business to the next level, consider starting a podcast and also a blog because it will allow you to grow your audience the right way and you will not have to worry too much about using a marketing budget to share your message.
That is something that larger companies will probably not be able to do because they will have to get approved from a hierarchy of executives before they can share their message.
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Tags: Apple, Bennis Public Relations, Blogging, iTunes, LinkedIn, Podcast, Stephanie Shirley, Twitter
About Cheval John
Cheval John is the Founder and CEO of Vallano Media, LLC, a marketing agency which helps small to mid-sized businesses use social media correctly to build a loyal following and in the process become more profitable. Cheval is also the host of "What's The Word?" a podcast about finding out what inspires people to choose their respective careers and how social media impacted their lives and business. He is the author of two books including the Amazon Best-Seller, "8 Lessons Every Podcaster Needs To Learn." He has spoken at Social Media Week Lima in Ohio and at Social Media Day Houston 2017 about topics around live streaming and podcasting. Cheval has been featured in media outlets including Ebony Magazine, Social Media Today and Forbes. He was named a Houston Top 25 Social Media Power Influencer (2016 and 2017) and a Twitter Top 50 Influencer by Onalytica in 2018.